This invention relates to a chip type solid electrolyte capacitor, particularly to the terminal structure thereof.
Conventional chip type solid electrolyte capacitors include those of plastic molded type formed by connecting external anode and cathode leads 21, 22 respectively to the terminals of a capacitor device 1 fabricated according to a known technique, followed by armoring with a molding plastic 20, as shown in FIG. 1; and those of simplified plastic armored type formed by briefly armoring the capacitor device 1 with a plastic 30, for example, by fluidized bed dip coating method, followed by formation of external anode and cathode terminal electrodes 31, 32 respectively to the terminals of the device directly without using external anode and cathode leads, as show in FIG. 2.
In such a type of conventional chip type solid electrolyte capacitor, the capacitor device itself has rectifying characteristics, so that a voltage can be applied reversely across the electrodes if the capacitor is mounted onto a circuit board with wrong polarity orientation of the terminal electrodes, leading to dielectric breakdown of the device, a flushof great short-circuit current to elevate the temperature of the capacitor device and finally to burning thereof, disadvantageously.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a chip type solid electrolyte capacitor in which such accidents as a voltage being applied reversely thereto, when mounted onto the circuit board, due to erroneous orientation or wrong polarity of the chip type solid electrolyte capacitor employing a capacitor device having rectifying characteristics which leads to breakdown of the capacitor device can be prevented. This chip capacitor has cathode terminals at each end and an anode terminal at the center. Since the capacitor is of a three-terminal structure, the polarity of the capacitor is not in question when mounting onto a circuit board.